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CS156

When writing tests for Spring Boot controllers, one thing to keep in mind is that any of the modules that the controller depends on via dependency injection have to be provided for in backend tests.

For example, suppose that a controller declares that it depends on having access to two database tables with code like this:

  @Autowired
  private CommonsRepository commonsRepository;
  @Autowired
  private UserCommonsRepository userCommonsRepository;

Then, in any controller test code, we have to provide access to those same database tables, either real tables, or mocks of those tables.

We typically use mocks in tests, because that is more predictable and relilable than testing with a real database, and because we are not testing the database functionality; we are testing our own controller code.

So in the controller test, what we need is:

  @MockBean
  UserCommonsRepository userCommonsRepository;

  @MockBean
  CommonsRepository commonsRepository;

If one of these is missing, you’ll get an error such as this one:

[ERROR] joinCommonsTest  Time elapsed: 0 s  <<< ERROR!
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Failed to load ApplicationContext
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.UnsatisfiedDependencyException: Error creating bean with name 'commonsController': Unsatisfied dependency expressed through field 'userCommonsRepository'; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.NoSuchBeanDefinitionException: No qualifying bean of type 'edu.ucsb.cs156.happiercows.repositories.UserCommonsRepository' available: expected at least 1 bean which qualifies as autowire candidate. Dependency annotations: {@org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired(required=true)}
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.NoSuchBeanDefinitionException: No qualifying bean of type 'edu.ucsb.cs156.happiercows.repositories.UserCommonsRepository' available: expected at least 1 bean which qualifies as autowire candidate. Dependency annotations: {@org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired(required=true)}